Chương 120: Chapter 119: Milestone

The walk back to Serendine took about twenty minutes, and I used every one of them to decompress. The raid that I'd just been in was nothing short of intense, and the rewards were plentiful. I didn't get the Spriggan's Echo, and now Vanguard had two of them. Gaul really wanted it, which could only mean he was aware of how important they were. It's fine, I thought. I'll fight plenty of bosses in the weeks to come. The Greenveil was quiet.

Whether the Spriggan's death had actually lifted some of the corruption or whether I was imagining it, the oppressive weight that had hung over the northern woods felt diminished, and the sunlight filtered through the canopy without the greenish tint it had carried before. The fact that the boss was Enhanced must have had something to do with the ruins. I checked them after the fight, but there was no way to get in. I had a feeling that the Spriggan was the key. The next time it respawns, we'll know more.

Lune trotted beside me, unbothered by the morning's events, occasionally darting into the underbrush to investigate a sound before circling back. I didn't have her out during the boss fight because I didn't want to risk her getting hurt. I had restoration potions for pets, and Foxfire was a decent support ability, but there was one thing here in Godsrealm that differed from other games. It was all so real. It felt no different from my outside life, and that added quite the weight regarding my little companion.

I was very fond of her, and putting her in harm's way didn't feel quite right, not yet, at least. My to-do list had figuring out how to level pets up right at the top, but information was still scarce. Gaul had one too, so I decided to ask him the next time we met. It wasn't even noon yet. The Spriggan fight had started early, lasted roughly an hour, and the loot distribution and cleanup had taken another forty minutes after that.

I'd fought a hard battle, earned a Unique weapon, watched ninety-one players die, and it wasn't even lunchtime. Godsrealm had a way of compressing an absurd amount of experience into a single session. I checked my quest log as I walked. The Dusk King's Feast and the Blue Flower Delicacy were both ready to turn in — I'd gathered all the ingredients before the Spriggan fight, and Petra was waiting. My experience bar sat at 712, 000 out of 750, 000, meaning I was less than 40, 000 away from level 25.

Between the quest rewards and whatever Petra's cooking gave me, I had a good chance of hitting the magic number today. Serendine's streets were busy with the usual traffic when I arrived. Players and residents moved through the market district, and I could hear the familiar sounds of the Auction House and the blacksmith's forge as I crossed the bridge toward the center. Petra's bakery was just as warm and flour-dusted as before, and it was filled with the smell of baked goods that made my stomach growl.

"Back already?" Petra said without looking up from the dough she was kneading.

"I told you it's nigh-impossible to gather those beansprouts, but I reckon you have the frostberries?"

"I got something better." I pulled the Lightsworn Beansprouts from my inventory and set them on the counter. Petra stopped kneading. She wiped her hands on her apron, slowly, then walked around the worktable and examined the sprouts without touching them at first. Her fingers hovered over them, and I could see her lips moving as if she were reciting something from memory.

"How did you get these?" she asked, clearly sceptical.

"The Spriggan."

"You killed it?"

"With about a hundred other people, yes." She looked at me with an expression I hadn't seen from her before, somewhere between respect and concern.

"The Lightsworn Spriggan was a friend to this city, once. Even corrupted, even dangerous, I..." She trailed off, then shook her head and picked up the beansprouts with careful hands.

"It doesn't matter. What's done is done, and if the spirit had to fall, at least something beautiful will come from it." She set the sprouts in a clay dish filled with warm water and began arranging her workspace with the efficiency of someone preparing for surgery. The Dusk King Carp came out of my inventory next, its twilight-purple scales still shimmering, followed by the Moonpetal Herbs, their silver glow fading now that they'd been separated from the stalks.

"The frostberries as well," she said, extending a hand.

"I'll do both while I'm at it. No sense heating the kitchen twice." I handed over everything and found a seat near the hearth. Lune curled up on the floor beside me, and within thirty seconds Petra had produced a small saucer of cream from somewhere and set it in front of my companion with a softness that was entirely absent from her interactions with me. Lune's more charming than I am, I thought with disbelief.

"Don't touch anything on the cooling rack," she said without looking my way.

"I wasn't going to." The Blue Flower Cake came first, since it was simpler. Petra worked through the recipe: she mixed the flour and honey, folded in the frostberries, layered the blue petals between the tiers. The result was beautiful: three layers with blue petals arranged on top and a light dusting of powdered sugar. She cut me a slice.

"Here." The taste reminded me of a cool spring mixed with incredible sweetness, and the cake melted in my mouth. It was incredible. All attributes increased by 1 for 1 hour. The prompt appeared after I finished the whole slice. A 9 attribute increase for an hour was a pretty good boon, even better than what I'd read about the recipe on the forums. Maybe the better the cook, the better the bonuses it gives?

"Good?" Petra asked.

"That's an understatement."

"The frosting is inconsistent," she said, already critiquing her own work.

"Next time I'll use less honey. Now leave me alone for a while. The carp requires concentration." The Dusk King meal took considerably longer. Petra moved through the preparation with a focus that reminded me of the best players I'd seen in Godsrealm. Every ingredient was measured by instinct rather than recipe, every adjustment made with confidence. She filleted the carp, setting its iridescent scales aside in a bowl.

The flesh went into a marinade of Ember Salt and golden cream while the Moonpetal Herbs were finely chopped.. The Lightsworn Beansprouts were the last addition, and she handled them with particular care.

"Four minutes in the reduction," she murmured to herself.

"Not a second more." The whole thing took about two hours, and I waited patiently. I didn't mind a bit of a rest after the hectic morning. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. When it was done, she set the plate in front of me. The Dusk King Carp sat at the center, its flesh a deep twilight purple, the beansprouts were arranged along the edges, their glow dimmed but still visible, and the Moonpetal Herbs gave the whole dish a silvery sheen.

"Eat," Petra said. The first bite was unlike anything I'd experienced in the game. The flavor system in Godsrealm had always been impressive, but this carried a depth and richness that resonated through my senses. I finished the portion in about five minutes, and what came next made me almost fall off the chair. First taste of a Legendary Meal! Disclaimer: Player 'Orion' had gathered all ingredients for the meal. Additional rewards granted.

Skill acquired: Twilight Hunter (passive) (growth) Rare Gain enhanced vision in low-light and dark environments. Gain +5% movement speed and +5% attack power in low-light and dark environments. Dexterity: +5 Are you kidding me? Passive skills were rarer at this point than Unique rated items. I knew of Alice's passive that let her use heavy armor, and… that was it. Twilight Hunter was a passive skill with the 'growth' suffix, just like my 'Archery Adept' title, my Unique equipment and the Echoes.

Never would I have imagined to gain such a reward just from eating a dish, no matter how incredible the taste was.

"Petra," I said.

"This is delicious."

"Of course it is." She was already cleaning the kitchen, her back to me, but I could hear the pride in her voice.

"Chef Aldus would have approved, I think. Perhaps not the presentation — he was always fussier about plating — but the technique was sound."

"You undersell yourself."

"I sell myself exactly right. Now, you promised Berg a taste." I had, and I packaged a portion carefully, still in disbelief. Quest complete: The Dusk King's Feast Quest reward: 50, 000 EXP Quest complete: Blue Flower Delicacy Quest reward: 15, 000 EXP The experience from both quests pushed my bar to 752, 000, and the notification I'd been chasing for days finally arrived. Level Up! Attribute Points: +5 Health: +10 Mana: +5 I stood there for a moment, letting it settle.

Level 25 was a threshold that skyrocketed my efficiency once again, the breakpoint where my power level had shifted towards new heights. The challenges were getting harder, too, but now I was ready for them all. I allocated my five attribute points into Agility, continuing to close the gap between it and my Dexterity. Then I opened my skill book. Arrowstorm (Level 25): Fire an arrow into the sky.

After three seconds, a rain of mana-arrows will come falling down to a designated area, dealing 40% of your physical power per second, for four seconds. Damaged enemies are slowed. Cooldown: 26 seconds Mana cost: 36 An AoE skill, perfect for zoning and farming mobs alike, especially in combination with the skill from my Unique bow. Also perfect for large scale PvP battles. This was a game-changer for the kind of content that was coming next.

I closed the skill book and turned my attention to the gear I'd been carrying since the Spriggan fight. I left Petra's bakery and found a quiet bench near the river, away from the market traffic. The afternoon sun was warm, and I needed a few uninterrupted minutes to sort through my equipment. First, the Cloak of Tidemark. I'd been carrying the Unique cloak in my inventory since the Count's reward ceremony, unable to equip it until I hit 25.

I pulled it out and held it for a moment — the velvet was deep royal blue, the edges adorned with silver threading, with the sigil of Count Vizgrad etched into its back. The Magnify +15 prompt appeared the moment I equipped it, asking me to select a single attribute for the permanent bonus, excluding Vitality. It seemed like you couldn't use 'Magnify' on attributes that were already present on the item. I considered my options carefully. Dexterity was my highest stat and my primary damage driver.

Fifteen more points would push my attack power and attack speed to a level that few players in the game could match at this stage. It was the safe choice, and the mathematically optimal one. Agility was the alternative. I'd been steadily investing in it, and fifteen points would leapfrog several levels' worth of careful allocation.

The movement speed, attack speed, and strength bonuses from Agility would make me faster and more mobile, which mattered increasingly as the content grew harder and the enemies grew smarter. I chose Dexterity in the end. The raw output increase was too significant to pass up, and I could continue building Agility naturally through level-up allocations. With the +15 from Magnify on top of the +5 from Twilight Hunter, my Dexterity had just jumped severely. The Vitality +15 from the cloak was a welcome bonus as well.

My health pool had always been a concern; Rangers were inherently squishy, and the trade-off for high damage output was low survivability. Fifteen Vitality pushed my health into a range where I could survive a hit or two that would have killed me yesterday. And Perfect Fit meant the cloak counted toward any armor set bonuses, so I still had access to the Black Warg set bonus, although not for too long. The Forged in Flesh skill sat in the cloak's tooltip.

I read it again: sacrifice an item, destroy it permanently, absorb its skill into myself. A one-time use. I wasn't ready to make that decision yet. When the time comes, I'll know. Next, I equipped the Greenveil Shrouded Mask. The Epic hood settled over my head, the dark green fabric blending with the Cloak of Tidemark's blue in a combination that looked striking even before considering the stats. 35 defense for a light armor headpiece, plus ten Agility and five Dexterity.

The armor skill, Mistveil, was icing on the cake. And finally, the weapon. I drew Spriggan's Will from my inventory and held it in both hands. The bow was alive, for lack of a better word. The limbs were curved from the Spriggan's own root-wood, ending in wing-like ornaments, dark green with veins of jade, and the string responded to my touch as if the weapon were reading my intentions.

[Spriggan's Will] Unique Level 25 (Growth: can be upgraded to level 40) Longbow Attack Power: 185 Dexterity: +15 Magnify: +10 Adaptive Growth: For every 30 seconds of continuous combat, the bow's attack power increases by 3% (stacks up to 5 times, max +15%). Basic attacks and ranged skills have a 5% chance to apply Entangle, rooting the target for 1. 2 seconds. Weapon Skill: Verdant Arrow I stood from the bench, walked to the edge of the river, and tested the draw.

The Threadweaver had been smooth, the Emberwood Longbow was straight-up powerful, but Spriggan's Will was different. The draw was responsive, the bow bending to meet my pull with understanding. At full draw, the jade veins along the limbs blazed with light, and I could feel the mana flowing through the weapon, ready to be channeled into whatever skill I chose. Magnificent. I released the string without firing, letting the tension settle, and held the bow at my side. The Emberwood Longbow would stay in my inventory.

Arrow of Ash & Flames was still valuable in specific situations; the fire damage, the Weakness to Fire debuff, the raw destruction of a fully charged shot against fire-vulnerable targets. I could swap weapons for it the same way I swapped to the Threadweaver for Silk Shot. My repertoire was getting deep enough that weapon-switching was becoming as important as skill rotation. I opened my status window and took a long look at the numbers. The difference from yesterday was staggering.

STATUS WINDOW Name: Orion Class: Ranger Level: 25 Guild: none Kingdom: Ravenloft Title(s): Tidemark's Champion Adventurer rank: Gold Adventurer's XP: 52/100 STATUS METER Health: 456/456 Mana: 235/235 EXP: 2, 680/800, 000 Attack power: 451 Defense value: 167 Movement speed: 91 Attack speed: 397 BASIC ATTRIBUTES Strength: 11 Agility: 91 Dexterity: 153 Intelligence: 5 Vitality: 20 Wisdom: 5 Presence: 9 Luck: 2 Influence: 8 SECRET ATTRIBUTES - LIFE SKILLS Skinning&Processing: 21 Woodcutting: 16 Leatherworking: 5 Armor crafting: 4 PASSIVE SKILLS Twilight Hunter (rare) (growth) TITLES Archery Adept (DEX +10) Hero of Riverhear (cost of Riverhear supplies - 50%) Friend of the Forest (10% MS in Forest, animals don't aggro) Dungeon Pioneer (5% more EXP in dungeons) The Count's Friend (Count's Retinue reputation cannot decrease below 40, free accommodation in the Palace of Tidemark, unrestricted visits granted to the hearings held by Count Vizgrad) Tidemark's Champion (Reputation with factions based in Tidemark county: +25) My defense didn't rise as much as I wanted it to, since the Cloak of Tidemark didn't give any, but it was still a net positive.

However, my attack speed, movement speed and attack power were incomparable to before. I closed the window, picked up Lune, and started walking toward The Quiet Oak. Berg was getting his taste of the Dusk King Carp, and I had an afternoon of grinding ahead of me before the day was done. I thought about the Spriggan fight, the ninety-one players who'd fallen, the nine who'd survived.

I thought about Alice's raid report that she was probably writing right now, about Gaul taking his Shroudplate back to Vanguard's staging area, about Denxy carrying Desirae's staff in his inventory. But most of all, I thought about myself. Level 25. New equipment, new skills, increased power. Time to see what I can do with all of it.